


There's only one bed

by alienvomplanetenwooh



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, China, F/F, Female Arthur, Female Arthur Pendragon, Female Merlin, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Genderbending, Modern Era, Pining Arthur, Pining Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Sharing a Bed, Travel, World Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 04:53:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14073294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alienvomplanetenwooh/pseuds/alienvomplanetenwooh
Summary: Merlin managed to convince Arthur to go on vacation with her, to a foreign country and no knowledge of their language. Now Arthur is stuck with Merlin in this tiny room with just one tiny bed.





	There's only one bed

**Author's Note:**

> I finally finished my first one shot in the Merlin fandom!  
> I have not yet beta read it so please excuse any mistakes.
> 
> There are also some chinese sentences included (both in characters and pinyin). I'll post the translation at the end but they are not important for the understanding of the story, Arthur and Merlin don't understand them either after all.  
> Again sorry for any mistakes, I've only just recently started to learn chinese.

Arthur suppressed another sigh, she wasn't exactly sure how she ended up here, but she was pretty sure it was Merlin's fault.

It's usually Merlin's fault.

Her best friend nagged her for months about going on that trip with her and well...Arthur had never been able to say no to Merlin's requests, however stupid they might be.

And this idea of hers probably made the top ten.

Who in their right mind would purposefully travel to a country whose language they didn't speak and whose inhabitants - apparently - only scarcely knew any English.

Arthur groaned when the innkeeper led them to the narrow, but seemingly endless staircase. She looked at her luggage and for the first time she envied Merlin for the decision to bring a backpack instead of a giant suitcase. She might look like a total moron wearing a backpack more than half her size, but right now Arthur would prefer it if it meant she didn't have to awkwardly carry the suitcase up the stairs.

God, how she loathed stairs.

 

52 stairs later - yes, she counted them - the old lady finally came to a stop and pointed at a door.

「这是你们的房间，好吗？」 (“Zhè shì nǐmen de fángjiān, hǎo ma?”), the woman said while opening the door and offering Merlin the keys.

Neither Arthur now Merlin had the slightest idea what she'd just said, the only chinese words that they knew were - a probably horribly mispronounced - 「你好」 (‘Nǐ hǎo’).

The chinese lady smiled at them as if she'd just presented them her most precious treasure and Arthur couldn't do anything but offer her a little smile in return. She really hated language barriers, the first thing she'd do upon returning to the UK will be to attend a beginners chinese course at her university.

In hindsight she probably should've done it before going on this trip.

The blond girl finally took a step inside the room and immediately collided with Merlin's oversized backpack. The room was barely big enough for both of them to stand at the same time. All it included was a fan, an AC, a little bedside table and a bed. One. Bed.

“Uhm excuse me”, Arthur said, turning around to face the old lady, “I think there has been a mix up. We booked a room with two separate beds, not one - that I'm pretty sure is actually a single bed.”

The innkeeper looked at her with a quizzical look that indicated that she understood about as much of Arthur's speech as Arthur previously understood of hers.

Arthur sighed: “Never mind, uhm, shi shi.”

The woman retreated and Arthur closed the door. 

“Honestly Arthur, can't you even remember the most basic words? It's 「谢谢」 (“Xièxiè”) not ‘shi shi’, whatever that might mean!”, Merlin said, flopping down on their shared bed.

“Well excuse me, Miss Ph.D. Chinese. How about you and your flawless chinese conduct the negotiations next time, huh?”, Arthur snarled turning to face her friend, “Why we don't just stay in proper hotels where people might actually know some English instead of your airbnb thingy is beyond me anyways!”

“Because, Arthur, some of us actually have to think about what they spend their money on. Apart from that I think it's fun to stay with the locals! It's a bit like you actually live here instead of just being on holiday!”, Merlin explained.

“But we  _ are  _ on holiday,  _ Mer _ lin.”

Merlin rolled her eyes before shutting them and pretending to sleep.

“I blame you, by the way”, Arthur added after sitting down on the bed in silence for a while.

“Yes, I blame myself too, for not being born with a golden spoon shoved up my arse”, Merlin replied sarcastically.

“I mean for screwing up our booking”, Arthur huffed out.

“How is that my fault that they gave us the wrong room?!”, she protested.

“I don't know”, Arthur shrugged, “you probably got yourself fooled by pretty pictures and didn't read the fine print or something. I'll book our next place to make sure that doesn't happen again.”

Merlin snorted: “Yeah, good luck with that. The fine print is usually chinese as well, just so you know.”

***~*~***

Arthur wanted to punch Merlin.

It was the middle of the night and she was wide awake, unable to get some sleep.

The first reason for this was, that their 'bed’ consisted of a 5cm thick foam mattress, call her a princess if you must, but that was probably as comfortable as lying on the floor itself.

Reason number two was, that their bed was tiny and she couldn't move enough to get really comfortable without bumping into Merlin.

And the last - and most annoying - reason was Merlin's sleep habit. She moved. All. The. Time. One minute she wrapped herself in a blanket cocoon leaving Arthur shivering, the next it was Merlin's foot finding its way to her Lumbarregion (how did it get up there anyway?), and yet another it was her tossing and turning in her sleep, sighing and babbling some nonese connected to her dreams.

And don't even get Arthur started on how distracting it was that Merlin's pajamas only consisted of an oversized shirt and a pair of panties, which led to her naked legs brushing up against Arthur every now and then.

She had to get out of there. Right now, or she might do something insanely stupid.

Arthur got out of bed as quietly as possible and fled to the bathroom next door. Maybe splashing a little water in her face would help her cool off.

She could do this. Just because she was in love with her best friend would not make her do something ill-considerate that would quite possibly ruin their friendship. She already followed Merlin to the other side of the world - quite literally. What they had was great, she wouldn't ruin it because she wanted more. This was all she needed. Merlin by her side. With her, even being stuck in this chinese village with no way of communicating with its residents was kind of fun. Obviously she would never admit that out loud.

 

After a while she slipped back into the room, maybe now she could get some rest after all. In the dim light of the new day she saw that Merlin had used her absence to sprawl out her long limbs over the entirety of the mattress.

Arthur sighed: “You've got to be kidding me.”

Careful, as not to wake Merlin, she tried to push her friend to the left side of the bed, while simultaneously trying to reconquer part of the blanket.

Successfully completing her task the two girls now layed facing each other, faces only inches apart.

Arthur whimpered slightly as Merlin's even breaths ghosted over her face. This was so not fair! This was torture! Sweet, sweet torture. Couldn't any other girl fall for her best friend? Why did it have to be her?

Arthur moved to turn around, she wouldn't be getting any sleep like that for sure, maybe facing the other way would make it easier.

She wiggled a little, trying to untangle her legs from the blanket, when Merlin's hand came to rest on her arm.

“Stop. Moving”, she commanded in a sleepy voice.

Arthur's breath hitched for a second while her whole body concentrated on the one spot where Merlin's long fingers curled around her arm.

“Really, Merlin.  _ You _ of all people do not get to complain about moving bedfellows!”, she whispered, fearing that her voice might betray her if she spoke up, “Honestly, Merlin. I don't think you've laid still for 5 minutes straight.”

“Shhhhh”, the black haired girl shushed her, her hand leaving Arthur's arm and plopping back down on her face in an attempt to cover her mouth, and failing.

“You can't shush me,  _ Mer _ lin! I haven't been able to sleep all night! Now it's payback time”, Arthur decided.

Instead of a reply Merlin's hand slowly slid down Arthur's right arm and laced their fingers together. When she turned towards the wall she forced Arthur to move as well, if she didn't want to let go of their joint hands - and right this moment, Arthur would rather die than letting go of Merlin's hand. Lying with Arthur's chest pressed against her back, Merlin draped the girl's arm over the side of her belly and brought their hands in front of her face.

“Good night, Arthur", she whispered, pressing a little kiss to their laced fingers.

Arthur let out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding since Merlin took her hand and nuzzled her face into the side of Merlin's neck.

“Good night, Merlin”, she replied knowing full well, that there was no way she'd be getting any sleep that night.

  
  


**Epilogue**

  
  


“Arthur, what am I looking at?”, Merlin asked, looking terrified.

“You're looking at our home for the next 4 nights,  _ Mer _ lin”, Arthur replied, “I said I'd get us a decent place next time, didn't I?”

“Please tell me you're joking!”, the black haired girl whined looking at what could only be described as a villa, “Sometimes I really wonder why I put up with you! How much is this place! No, wait, it doesn't matter, because I definitely can't afford this!”

Arthur smiled, already moving towards the front gate: “Yes you can, it's free.”

“Free?!”, Merlin asked disbelieving and hurried inside after Arthur.

“Yes, for you it's free”, she explained.

“No! Arthur! You know I don't want your charity!”, Merlin complained.

“It's not charity!” Arthur protested, “It's...A gift. A thank you gift.”

“A thank you gift for what?”, Merlin asked, but before she could get an answer the front door was opened and they were greeted by an elderly man.

“Ah, Miss Pendragon! 我很高兴认识您! (Wǒ hěn gāoxìng rènshi nín!) 请进, 请进! (Qǐng jìn, qǐng jìn!) It’s nice to meet you. Please, come in! Your room is already prepared!”, the man, who could quite possibly be a butler, offered.

He took both Arthur's suitcase and Merlin's backpack out of their hands and led them up the stairs.

***~*~***

Finally alone in their room Merlin turned to Arthur and looked at her with furrowed brows.

“A thank you gift for what?”, she repeated her question.

Arthur smiled half a smile and brushed her fingers through the hair behind Merlin's ear, leaning her forehead against Merlin's she gave her a small peck on the lips and whispered: “For putting up with me.”

Merlin blushed, still overwhelmed by how much their relationship had changed in these past few days, and averted her eyes to properly take in the room for the first time.

“Arthur?”

“Yes?”

“There's only one bed.”

“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> 这是你们的房间，好吗？   
> Zhè shì nǐmen de fángjiān, hǎo ma?  
> = This is your room, is it okay?
> 
> 你好  
> Nǐ hǎo  
> = Hello
> 
> 谢谢  
> Xièxiè  
> = Thank you
> 
> 我很高兴认识您!   
> Wǒ hěn gāoxìng rènshi nín!  
> = I'm happy to meet you!
> 
> 请进, 请进!   
> Qǐng jìn, qǐng jìn!  
> = Please come in.
> 
>  
> 
> This is my first story here on ao3 so I'm grateful for any comments, feedback or criticism!  
> Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
